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Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Uruguay is expected to pass it by year's end. France will likely have it by the end of the year as well, since the legislation will be introduced in October and faces no major obstruction. Luxembourg is expected to pass it next year as well since the bill has finally left the judiciary committee.

Regardless, the next year is going to be a big one for marriage equality worldwide!!!

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

In the realm of state and local government, yes Tasmania is definitely one, among a number of states and municipalities we are looking at in 2013. The U.S. is always broiling with debate over which state is next, especially at the polls this November. Next year, perhaps it will be Illinois, Delaware, Hawaii, or Rhode Island. There may also be some more Mexican states, in addition to Mexico City, and Quintana Roo where Cozumel and Cancun are located. Brazil has been racking up a good number of cities where judges will convert civil unions into marriages. Hopefully, this will create some sort of critical mass where it is de facto across the country.

If Illinois is next, AND if DOMA falls, that would make me a very happy boy

That we are capable only of being what we are, remains our unforgivable sin.
- Gene Wolfe

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Originally Posted by scream4ever

Uruguay is expected to pass it by year's end. France will likely have it by the end of the year as well, since the legislation will be introduced in October and faces no major obstruction. Luxembourg is expected to pass it next year as well since the bill has finally left the judiciary committee.

Regardless, the next year is going to be a big one for marriage equality worldwide!!!

But probably not Iraq or Iran and the like! But welcome the rest of the world.

BEWARE! Harassing the Indian may result in sudden and severe hair loss.

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

The author of a bill, lesbian MP Louisa Wall, credits Obama's announcement in May this year. Journalists from AP also take note of the correlation. The Prime Minister John Key announced that he "was not opposed" to marriage equality shortly thereafter.

This is why Obama's refusal to back gay marriage for most of this first term angered me so much. President's opinions matter a great deal to the whole world. I think they matter far more than they should, but matter they do.

President GWB did so much damage to gay rights with his campaign of hatred. Obama has done much to reverse that, but he could have done more.

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

Bush probably retarded growth in LGBT rights in the US, but we'll never know by how much. At least we know with the wind in his back, and a healthy Republican Congress, he could not get an amendment to ban gay marriage passed to the states.

He got 30 states to pass constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage in their states.

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

I get a little bothered when people keep saying "other countries are so far ahead than the US". It's quite a bit easier to be ahead of the US with 10-20-30 million people spread out in a huge territory. The US is absolutely unique in terms of size and diversity in the first world.

That we are capable only of being what we are, remains our unforgivable sin.
- Gene Wolfe

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

As much disdain as I hold for Bush, I'm not sure the 31 states with amendments were all his doing.

Nope. They were all his doing.

GWB started the movement to get states to pass anti-gay laws, and his party wrote all of that legislation. Before GWB initiated the hatred campaign, no one had even considered that a need existed to protect civilization from homosexuality with laws. The war in Iraq was beginning to wear thin around the time of the 2004 election, GWB had already generated the most massive fiscal deficit in history, and Republicans needed a scapegoat to distract attention from their incompetence at governing. A campaign of anti-gay bigotry was ideal for them, since it appealed to their religious fundamentalist base.

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

Of the 31 amendments, only four were not during Bush's presidency, and only three were not in the first decade of the 21st century. During the 2004 election, 11 states had them on the ballot. Bush's advisers pushed the amendments particularly hard in the swing states Ohio and Michigan, so there are at least two that Bush's campaign/administration had a hand in.

While it is true that the Bush campaign pushed anti-gay hatred particularly hard in Ohio and Michigan, virtually none of the anti-gay amendments in any of the states would even have been proposed without the guidance of the White House. This was a national Republican crusade, initiated by the president and taken up by the Republican Party across America.

Here in Ohio, we had Ken Blackwell during the 2004 campaign comparing gays unfavorably to farm animals. Blackwell would never have made such provocative statements without the realization that his party and the president were backing him at every step. Indeed, such statements were made with the realization that they might be noticed in Washington, and might be worth a minor appointment in a new Bush administration.

The same is true in every state where anti-gay laws have been passed.

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

The rest were a product of the same religious right political machine that operates today, organized churches that operate in every city and town in America, the Family Research Council led by Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family led formerly by James Dobson, and others.

I do not believe it is possible to distinguish between Christian fundamentalism in America and Republicanism. They are the same movement.

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

...Relating to my previous post, I found this neat little quote from a Japanese newspaper.

But when President Barack Obama gingerly put his head above the election year parapet to announce he was in favor of same-sex marriage, it lit a spark of hope on the other side of the Pacific in conservative Japan.

"Seeing the U.S. president expressing his support for same-sex couples was like being told it was OK to be who we are," said Higashi, 27. "Everyone now knows Obama supports same-sex marriage. The impact is so big, it's incomparable."

This is why I have been so upset by Obama's recent homophobia. He could have done so much good by supporting gay rights from the beginning of his 2008 campaign. Instead, he chose not to speak out against evil. He chose not to do that which he surely knew was right. Rather than help guide the country to enlightenment, he followed behind those courageous souls who did the job without him.

Obama might have been remembered as one of the greatest presidents in American history. Now, he will be remembered as mostly good.

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

The first defense of marriage statute was passed in Maryland in 1973, and the first amendments passed in Alaska and Hawaii in 1998. After Massachusetts instituted marriage equality, that is when the religious right panicked and started the 2004 campaign.

Indeed..and one of the people who decided on that train of though was Ken Melhlman. I still have complete and utter contempt for someone who was willing to create damage that will take years or decades to undo to a community he was a part of. If you want to be a self-loather,that's one thing but to do what he did against us,nope.
Until all the anti-gay marriage amendments he helped push are gone,I'll still have disdain for him..and will even afterwards.
Ken Blackwell...can hardly wait to see when the gay marriage ban is repealed in Ohio. I hope he chokes on his hate.

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Great news for New Zealanders!

Unfortunately, their closest neighbour Australia has no hope of such a law for years to come. The current atheist "progressive" Prime Minister is inexplicably against gay marriage. When her toxically unpopular government is inevitably voted out in September, she will be replaced by a staunchly conservative Catholic man who will fight tooth and nail to keep the homos and the law as far apart as possible.

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Here's an interesting development in Australia, NZ's nearest neighbour. .

A few posts up, I lamented that Australia won't see marriage equality for years, because the leader of the certain-to-be-elected opposition government is a staunchly conservative member of the "Liberal" party (who, ironically, is the conservative party here.)

But the leader of that same party in Australia's most populous state, Barry O'Farrell, has today come out in strong support of same-sex marriage.

''My view - a view that I've come to in recent years - is that as a Liberal who believes that commitment and family units are one of the best ways in which society is organised, I support the concept of same-sex marriage,'' Mr O'Farrell said. ''We should, as governments, be encouraging commitment. As societies we should be encouraging commitment. Because, ultimately, people caring for each other works side by side with governments to create better communities.'

Re: New Zealand Likely the Next for Marriage Equality

Originally Posted by JockBoy87

France is next. The final ratification by the Assemblee is in Tuesday.

There may be trouble getting Colombia too this year, but we'll see... In a few months we will probably get England and Luxembourg, and that will be it for this year. There's a remote chance we could get Finland, and I'm not sure what is going on in Scotland either. Next year Ireland will probably hold a referendum.

The next states are probably Rhode Island, Delaware, and Minnesota, and Illinois. We might have to wait for the Supreme Court to act on DOMA to get Illinois and New Jersey, so that we can use the argument that civil unions don't get federal benefits. In my opinion the federal benefits of marriage issue will be the trump card that will get us to the next level.

Yup. When section 3 is shot down the whole "civil unions are the same thing" lingo will be gone. You can also expect litigation challenging section 2 of DOMA to be shortly thereafter.